Last night, after a Maximillion Kleene concert, I was initiated to voice chat on the urgings of Dove and Raspberry. Unfortunately, it also involved hanging out on a sky blanket 300 meters above ground, so it took me a while to get up there to join the small group. The voice chat was very different--felt very much like hanging out in someone's living room for a couple of hours. The learning curve wasn't too bad (not compared to the SL learning curve, LOL), and it was kinda nice to hear Ras and Dove's voices. Dove used text chat too, and I can see why--in some ways it's an easier way to comment--in the background--about what's going on without contributing to the chaos of many voices at once. And I especially liked being able to hear Ras noodle on his guitar as we all hung out. That felt very natural and relaxing. And it was easier to jump in spontaneously with voice--assuming you have something to say.

The down sides of voice? Well for starters, it's MUCH harder to carry on multiple conversations in IM while voice chatting. You expect delays in text mode...but they are very noticable in voice. Hard to be in IM-Hell while doing voice chat, LOL. And for lack of a better word--the texture of the conversation is different. Text allows you a bit more space to choose your words. And of course, hearing impaired people will have trouble with this mode of conversation as well.

Having said all the above..I might add that I haven't done a 1:1 voice IM yet...that might prove to be a very different experience.